Applying the Process Interchange Format (PIF) to a Supply Chain Process Interoperability Scenario

The goal of the PIF Project is to develop an interchange format to help automatically exchange process descriptions among a wide variety of business process modelling and support systems such as workflow software, flow charting tools, process simulation systems, and process repositories. As an example of such an exchange, a demonstration scenario has been created which describes the use of PIF in the modelling and simulation of an integrated supply chain where different companies co-operate through a global supply chain management procedure to deliver commercial electronic goods. This scenario coordinates the exchange of process knowledge between a business process modelling tool/library (Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Process Handbook) and a process simulation package (Knowledge Based System Inc.’s (KBSI) ProSim) with PIF acting as the interlingua.